


Two men, one dog, four states, 800 miles

by Pohadka



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Montreal Canadiens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pohadka/pseuds/Pohadka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the Olympic Break.  Plenty of time to get from there to here, and points in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two men, one dog, four states, 800 miles

They left Raleigh early on Sunday morning. The rental car was big enough for their gear and the luggage and the border collie mix they called Maggie. They had a cooler full of drinks and snacks and a dog bowl slopping water every time Chuckie hit the brakes and had to renegotiate the driving directions.

#

[That wasn’t even the first argument. That had been when they woke up and had to decide whether to eat at the hotel or on the road.]

[Then it was the argument over who was driving first.]

[Or who left the towels all over the floor for Maggie to nest in during the night.]

#

The team bus had headed off to the airport with everyone else. Some headed to New York to connect through Paris to Moscow to Sochi. About as many back to Montreal. The rest of the team was in the wind. Gally had waved to PK and yelled for them not to come home without Gold. Chuckie of course, had told Max the same thing.

Then the two had hit the road. Raleigh North Carolina to Miami Florida. Twelve hours of driving through both Carolinas, Georgia, and most of Florida’s peninsula. They had the music. They had the GPS and maps. And a gorgeous sunny day for the drive.

#

The first detour came early and without warning. Barely an hour out of Raleigh it was…

“DUDE! Cape Fear! We gotta stop!”

[ The museum was interesting, but nothing like the movie. It was more Civil War memorial than anything they’d recognize. They’d turned around in the parking lot.]

#

“What the hell is a Piggly Wiggly?”

“Huh, it’s uh, a grocery store?”

“Pull over!”

More junk food, cookies and chips and pork rinds were bought, along with a little red piggy on a keychain, the name of the store on his back. [He was lost under the seat just to be found by the rental attendant a week later in puzzlement.]

#

Savannah is where they started pulling over for every BBQ joint with interesting names. The weirder the better. Gally decided he liked Sticky Fingers better. Chuckie just loved the name of Sho Nuff. The sauces got mixed up later, and it didn’t really matter who had what. They both agreed that it tasted the best when it spilled everywhere and they had to lick it off each other and almost got arrested in the park for public indecency.

[T-shirts were bought, along with ball caps. Those made it to the condo in Miami, but only the Sho Nuff shirt was found in time to pack for the flight back to Montreal.]

#

They knew they were driving along the coast, but the freeway was so far inland that they couldn’t see. So at Jacksonville they left I-95 for the coastal mix of State Route A1A, 5, 1, 405, and back to A1A. This led them to their first view of the water and the lure of beaches. They resisted until they reached Cape Canaveral.

[No one was surprised that they argued about why they arrived after closing hours on Sunday. Maggie ignored them yet again.]

They did get to see the view of a booster rocket highlighted against the coast, and they stayed to take lots of photos.

#

The sun set as they were reaching the northern edge of Palm Beach. This was in more familiar territory, so they drove in comfortable silence. The arguments didn’t really mean anything. It was just another way to say ‘I love you,’ after all.

#

They fell asleep with all the windows in the condo open. The balcony door stood wide open to let Maggie come and go as she pleased. She lay sprawled across the mat, her chin resting on the lowest rail. The sound of the ocean overwhelmed everything to the point that their heartbeats fell in sync with the beat of the waves.

“Brendan?”

“M’asleep.”

“Don’t care. Know what?”

“Mmfphmm?”

“I’m glad you came.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had a bunny about what might happen if Gallagher went along with Galchenyuk to his Miami home. Maggie the dog I threw in for personal reasons. Mostly to make someone giggle.


End file.
